The Hypocrisy of the Barry Bonds Steroids Witch Hunt
While some people would love to heap more praise on Barry Bonds for his latest feats especially when considering how many people were ready to bury him for his poor first half performance others will be calling out "Steroids!" once again. You can count me firmly in the former category. While I do personally believe that Barry Bonds has used performance enhancing drugs it is also quite clear that he is only one of many. It seems to me that Barry Bonds greatest crime is not that he is one of the many major league baseball players that has used performance enhancing drugs but that he has been so much better than everyone else while doing them.
Prior to the steroids era Barry Bonds was one of the greatest players in baseball history. He won three MVP awards in the 90s and by many accounts should have won five. Starting with his amazing 2001 season Barry Bonds was unparalleled not only amongst his peers but among all of the players in the history of baseball. His production was so outstanding during this period that his only competition was not from Albert Pujols or any of the other great players of these times but from Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. They are the only players in the history of baseball who have put up numbers anything like Barry Bonds 2001 through 2004. Accordingly he won all four MVP awards during those seasons and it's really a crime that he was not the unanimous winner on each occasion because there was no one else who deserved a single vote over him. He was that much better than everyone else.
It is now well known that many major league players have been using illegal performance enhancing drugs during this period including many pitchers. My question is why has Barry Bonds been the focus? Not only of fans' hate but of a federal investigation that seems to be completely ignoring the fact that steroids have been a league wide problem and instead is focusing on one single player. Shouldn't the crime be the use of the drugs and not being ridiculously good?
Another question: Why has no other player been able to put up the numbers that Barry Bonds put up from 2001 to 2005? The answer is simple. No one else is as good as he is. Steroids or not. Barry Bonds is the greatest hitter in the history of baseball.
Another point : If steroids make you so great then why are these players nothing to write home about? Alex Sanchez, Jorge Piedra, Agustin Montero, Jamal Strong, Juan Rincon, Rafael Betancourt, Ryan Franklin, Mike Morse, Carlos Almanzar, Felix Heredia, Matt Lewton, Yusaku Iriki, and Jason Grimsley. Not exactly a list of hall of famers. What is this list you may ask? A list of players who have actually been suspended from baseball for illegal steroid use. These players are from teams whose same fans boo Bonds mercilessly when he's in town.
Finally, my favorite point in the whole hypocrisy of the Barry Bonds witch hunt deal, The New York Yankees fans.
The Yankees are that team with Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield both of whom are just as obvious users of performance enhancing drugs as Barry Bonds (Giambi of course even admitted to his use.) Giambi and Sheffield are two of the best hitters in the Yankees ridiculously star studded lineup (oh the things that money can buy you…) so why is it I hear Yankees fans saying things like Barry Bonds should be kicked out of the league? How hypocritical can you get? How can people say things like this and think it makes any sort of logical sense? The reason is people don't think, they react. They let emotions take the place of thinking.
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10 Comments
Post a Commentbonds is awesome without adoubt,truly one of the greatest with or without the roids(if he Did) Hall of Fame oh Yeh for sure!
give me a break, he cheated. steriods was not banned in baseball until 2003. so it should be a non issue. you don't think players from other generations "cheated" babe ruth was hopped up on cocaine all the time. you don't think that is a performance enhancer. what about all the players in the 70's using uppers to gain an edge. barry bonds was the greatest of the "steroids" era and should be judged by his performance among his peers. it makes me laugh as well when the commisioner wants to take action now because of pressure from the public. this guy is the biggest hypocrite. you want to punish the players? what about the management and trainers and the commisioner that turned a blind eye to it. how ridiculous.
he was a cheat
Barroid cheated, and he did it in the most excessive fashion in the history of baseball. He hit a third of his home runs on juice, so all the "best player ever" arguments are irrelevent and usually only come from SF homers. Barroid can attrubute more of his career production to steroids than any other player. Come on guys!!!! Do you all have your heads wedged up your butts?!?! Barroid's head has permanently mutated!! If he had kept taking all those livestock growth harmones for a few more years, he would probably end up looking like a victim of birth defects caused by nuclear fallout (Anyone seen "The Hills Have Eyes"? Remember that one mutant with the humongous head held up by a brace?? That would be Barroid if baseball fans had decided it would be OK to let him keep cheating).
Barroid is not being "witch hunted" any more than Arthur Anderson or Ken Lay. When the Feds go after CRIMINALS, they usually start with the the most egregious ones.
Barroid is not being "persecu
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If you're curious as to why Bonds has been the focus, check out the 2004 Playboy article on the subject. You can read most of the text of the article in the fifth comment.
a guessing game as far as who has done steroids/HGH and who hasn't. If you throw out the guys who have been caught think of all the guys who have been too smart to test positive (including Bonds) . HGH isn't testable. That pitcher for the Diamondbacks that was caught, that was purely bad luck. Jason Grimsley. Almost forgot his name.
grg makes good points ... although i feel that if the issues were just the income tax evasion/perjury it would not have come to this. I think they are using those elements as an excuse to go after him which is what I'm getting at. If you were to go after every baseball player who didn't declare all of his income you'd have most of the bigs in jail. Zeke - I think that "they should all be thrown out" stuff is garbage. I personally don't want to watch a bunch of crap players play ball. It's clear that many of the great players in baseball have used steroids or other performance enhancing drugs if you were to "throw them all out" it would severly effect the entertainment level of this game. And that's all it is. It's a game and it's entertaining. And it'd be a lot less entertaining with guys like Bonds, Giambi, Sheffield, ... Pujols? Ryan Howard? Roger Clemons? yeah. It'd be a lot less entertaining without these guys around to watch and really it's a guessing gam
There isn't a witch hunt on about Barry Bonds. He is only the most visible target of ongoing fraud probes. To say it is a witch hunt is a canard.
Who has been busted? Not Bonds, but other players. However, Bonds has engaged in enough other illegal activites that he is a focus of a grand jury. Those activites include perjury, and income tax evasion. That's not a witch hunt, rather a legal investigation.
It isn't a mystery why Bonds is performing well. He is more talented. Many people could take all the steroids they can find, and still not run as fast as Ben Johnson. However when the talented people take the drugs they perform ever better in relationship to their competitors. That's cheating.
In relation to Giambi, remember he apparently didn't lie to the grand jury, which seperates him from Bonds. Otherwise if a fan says kick BOnds out (which should not happen) then of course Giambi should go too.
A cheat is a cheat and they should all be thrown out.
As far as Barry Bonds, he was so good before, there was no reason for him to cheat. I think taht is why people don't like him, plus the fact he was never a nice guy.
Oh And Yankee fans are hypocrits